FOREWORDS.
xvii
locks to supply deficiency of native hair," no "pomatum in profusion," no " greasy wool to bolster up the adopted locks, and grey powder to conceal dust." But all these fashionable requirements Percy supplied. He puffed out the 39 lines of the Child of Ell to 200 ; he pomatumed the Heir of Lin till it shone again; he stuffed bits of wool into Sir Cawline, Sir Aldingar; he powdered everything.[1] The desired result was produced; his young woman was accepted by Polite Society, taken to the bosom of a Countess, and rewarded her chaperon with a mitre. No one objected to the change in the damsel's appearance save one cantankerous attorney.[2] He demanded loudly the restoration of
- ↑ See the Kev. W. S. Blackley's article on the Percy Folio in the Contemporary Review, Nov. 1867.
- ↑ Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1790, p. xix.: "This MS. is doubtless the most singular thing of the kind that was ever known to exist. How such a multifarious collection could possibly have been formed so late as the year 1650, of compositions from the ages prior to Chaucer, most, if not all of which had never been printed, is scarcely to be conceived by those versed in ancient MSS., a similar instance perhaps not being to be found in any library public or private. This MS., to increase its singularity, no other writer has ever pretended to have seen. The late Mr. Tyrwhitt, an excellent judge and diligent peruser of old compositions, and an intimate friend of the owner, never saw it. It is stated by Dr. Percy to have been a present from Humphrey Pitt, Esquire, of Priors Lee in Shropshire. An acquaintance of Dr. Percy's has been heard to say that he rescued it from a maid servant at a country inn, who made use of it in lighting the fire. And it is remarkable, that scarcely anything is published from it, not being to be found elsewhere, without our being told of the defects and mutilation of the MS."
p. xxi. " Many other instances might be noticed, where the learned collector has preferred his ingenuity to his fidelity, without the least intimation to the reader.
"It follows, from the manner in which this celebrated collection is avowedly published, even allowing the MS. to be genuine, and to contain what it is said to do, that no confidence can be placed in any of the "old Minstrel ballads" inserted in that collection and not to be found elsewhere."
After Percy had answered Ritson's challenge by exhibiting the Folio, Kitson returned to the charge with the following words in his Ancient English Metrical Romances, ed. 1803, i. cviii-cxiii and note:
Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1790, p. xix.: "This MS. is doubtless the most singular thing of the kind that was ever known to exist. How such a multifarious collection could possibly have been formed so late as the year 1650, of compositions from the ages prior to Chaucer, most, if not all of which had never been printed, is scarcely to be conceived by those versed in ancient MSS., a similar instance perhaps not being to be found in any library public or private. This MS., to increase its singularity, no other writer has ever pretended to have seen. The late Mr. Tyrwhitt, an excellent judge and diligent peruser of old compositions, and an intimate friend of the owner, never saw it. It is stated by Dr. Percy to have been a present from Humphrey Pitt, Esquire, of Priors Lee in Shropshire. An acquaintance of Dr. Percy's has been heard to say that he rescued it from a maid servant at a country inn, who made use of it in lighting the fire. And it is remarkable, that scarcely anything is published from it, not being to be found elsewhere, without our being told of the defects and mutilation of the MS."
p. xxi. "Many other instances might be noticed, where the learned collector has preferred his ingenuity to his fidelity, without the least intimation to the reader.
"It follows, from the manner in which this celebrated collection is avowedly published, even allowing the MS. to be genuine, and to contain what it is said to do, that no confidence can be placed in any of the " old Minstrel ballads" inserted in that collection and not to be found elsewhere."
After Percy had answered Ritson's challenge by exhibiting the Folio, Kitson returned to the charge with the following words in his Ancient English Metrical Romances, ed. 1803, i. cviii-cxlii and note:
"Certainly this is a most extraordinary, as wel as unfortunate, book, and the labour of the right reverend editour in correcting, refineing, improveing, completeing, and enlargeing, the orthography, grammar, text, stile, and supplying the chasms and hiatuses, valdè deflenda! must have equal'd that of Hercules in cleanseing the Augean stable: so that a parcel of old rags and tatters were thus ingeniously and hapyly converted into an elegant new suit.
"The existence and authenticity of this famous MS. in its present mutilateëd and miserable condition is no longer to be deny'd or disputeëd ; at the same time, it is a certain and positive fact, that, in the elegant and refine'd work it gave occasion to, there is scarcely one single poem, song or ballad, fairly or honestly printed, either from the above fragment or other"Certainly this is a most extraordinary, as wel as unfortunate, book, and the labour of the right reverend editour in correcting, refineing, improveing, completeing, and enlargeing, the orthography, grammar, text, stile, and supplying the chasms and hiatuses, valdè deflenda! must have equal'd that of Hercules in cleanseing the Augean stable: so that a parcel of old rags and tatters were thus ingeniously and hapyly converted into an elegant new suit.
"The existence and authenticity of this famous MS. in its present mutilateëd and miserable condition is no longer to be deny'd or disputeëd ; at the same time, it is a certain and positive fact, that, in the elegant and refine'd work it gave occasion to, there is scarcely one single poem, song or ballad, fairly or honestly printed, either from the above fragment or other
